The Macedonian Ministry of Economy has announced an open tender for consulting firms interested in helping devise a
tourism strategy for the country.
See
Balkan Analysis 2007-01-13
The article reveals that Macedonia's intake from tourism was almost 100 million Euros for the first nine months of 2006. This is
dramatically better than had been foreseen by a French study completed in 2003.
The tender calls for a new and independent study of the tourism situation in Macedonia because the data used in the French study (from 2001 and earlier) is now obsolete.
With the recent announcement of new assistance packages from both the EU and USAID Macedonia has a fresh opportunity to obtain desperately needed grants for tourism development, promotion and training over the next few years:
EU - 210,000,000 Euros for 2007-8-9
USAID - around $8,750,000 from the MAA and Mac_Comp21 for the next 5 years
The Ministry of the Economy must soon establish the equivalent of a
National Tourism Organization that can foster and control tourism development, promotion and marketing. Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania have all become major international tourist destinations and the country should be able to benefit from their experiences, and could quite easily adapt some of their legislation rather than trying to "re-invent the wheel".
Macedonia's potential as a contender in European and worldwide tourism markets seems to have finally gotten the government's attention, but several preconditions for effectively competing in the realm of modern tourism development must be addressed in order to avoid certain catastrophe.
1) All efforts must include a very strong environmental awareness.
2) The current cavalier attitude toward the throwing of trash and garbage onto the ground and in the water must be changed through education and recycling.
3) Rapid movement must be made toward creating a very attractive investment atmosphere.
“We must offer various kinds of concessions to interested foreign investors,” willing to come into the Macedonian tourism market, says Zoran Nikolovski of the Ministry of Economy.
Among the concepts that the government is working on is the "Macedonian Village”.
Rural Tourism has become very popular throughout Europe and with endless forested mountains, tranquil lakes & rivers and thousands of kilometers of hiking, biking and horseback trails the Republic of Macedonia has both the natural beauty and the age-old attractions to make it happen.